Sundance 2011 Daily Links: Day 1

Sundance 2011 Daily Links: Day 1

Every day at Sundance, indieWIRE will post a rundown of the day’s news from our blog network as well as other outlets. Included today: Anne Thompson’s comprehensive Sundance preview, Spout’s review of “I Saw the Devil,” Movieline’s interview with “The Lie”‘s Joshua Leonard and a nifty Sundance photo gallery from the Hollywood Reporter.

indieWIRE Blogs:Anne Thompson at Thompson on Hollywood offered up an extensive Sundance preview where she listed all the festival’s pre-buys, dished on what celebrities are slated to attend and praised some films ahead of their official screenings. “Two titles head to Sundance with the Fox Searchlight machine already behind them: Tom McCarthy’s ‘Win Win,’ starring Golden Globe winner Paul Giamatti, and Miguel Arteta’s midwest comedy of manners ‘Cedar Rapids,’ starring my favorite actor in ‘The Hangover,’ Ed Helms, as well as John C. Reilly, Anne Heche and a juicy supporting cast,” she wrote. “Some time back a gaggle of press got a peek and it’s hilarious. Searchlight sent around this Sundance promo today.”

Christopher Campbell over at Spout caught an advance screening of Kim Ji-woon’s “new blood-deluge of a thriller,” “I Saw the Devil,” before it hits Sundance as part of the Spotlight lineup. Ji-woon’s gruesome revenge tale has been attracting a lot of attention for its grisly violence rumored to be on par with other Korean slashers. But, as Campbell writes in his review, this one manages to separate itself from the pack. “This is a movie about psychos, and it ultimately shares a lot more in common with “Se7en” than it does recent films like “Taken,” “Edge of Darkness,” Hong Kong’s “Vengeance” and any of this film’s South Korean brethren (including “Oldboy”),” he said. “If I had to lump it in with the latter group, I’d say it’s the revenge movie to end all revenge movies. Or, at least the current trend—though it will probably be remade, so there’s no reason to think this will be the case.”

Other Media Outlets: Sundance acting vet Joshua Leonard (“Humpday,” “The Blair Witch Project”) mixed it up this year by coming to the festival with his first directorial outing, “The Lie.” Movieline caught up Leonard to discuss what inspired him to step behind this camera.

Movieline also posted a list of their picks for the the five films likeliest to ignite a Sundance 2011 bidding war. At the top of their list, potentially attracting the highest bid, is “My Idiot Brother,” starring Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks and Zooey Deschanel.

Over at the New York Times, Brooks Barnes spotlighted six films from the Sundance lab that made the lineup, including Elgin James’ hyped “Little Birds.”

Finally, for a series of stills from a crop of the festival’s most buzzed about titles, visit the curated photo gallery at The Hollywood Reporter.

Sundance Goody for the Day: Check out the just-released trailer for “Perfect Sense,” starring Ewan McGregor and Eva Green, which is part of the Premieres lineup.